Amazon Prime hits Canada for CAN$79, but lacks Instant Video

Canadians will pay same price as Americans but will get less for it.

Eight years after launching Amazon Prime in the Lower 48, the Great White North finally has access to the unlimited two-day shipping service. It’s also available in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan, making Canada the sixth nation where Amazon’s swift-shipping logistics network reaches.

Amazon Prime, which will cost CAN$79 (US$80) annually, will not include Amazon Instant Video or Kindle e-book lending. (The $79 US version of Amazon Prime includes those other features.) Steve Oliver, the manager for Amazon.ca told the Globe and Mail that there are no plans to bring the video and lending options to Canada.

Those living in particularly rural areas of Canada, the company says, such as the far north of the country, or the Maritimes, will not get the two-day shipping guarantee, but they will have unlimited standard shipping. Amazon now has two fulfillment facilities, one just outside of Vancouver and another just outside of Toronto.

Agree the something like $25 needed for free shipping is easy to meet on most orders. Also unless they actually put some products in the Canadian Amazon store (compared to US) it's really a non starter for me

I see Canadians noting that the Amazon.ca product selection isn't as good as America, I have no idea, I've never looked, but I can say as an American Prime subscriber I never use the streaming video and I am very satisfied with the value I get. The difference between 2 day shipping and the free shipping that takes 5+ days is for me what makes Amazon a viable alternative for pretty much everything I buy. In the past 2 weeks I've ordered a combination lock, a backpack, a pack of wooden hangers, a couple pairs of running shorts, a soup ladle and sauce pot, a video game controller, a pair of kitchen tongs, an iPhone case, and a package of rechargeable batteries. All at significant discounts to brick-and-mortar retail, all delivered to my door in 1-2 days.

Given how little you have to spend to get free shipping (which is - at least for me - stupid quick) this has no value whatsoever. Do people make tons of tiny Amazon orders?

Free 2-day shipping it a tremendous value if you order as much as we do off Amazon. We buy the most pedestrian items, just because we can, and the prices are competitive with most brick and mortar retailers. There are a lot of sub-$25 purchases we make, just because it's something we happen to need or want - I just bought a set of banana plugs, plenty of small gifts for xmas gifts, a cheapo power supply that I needed to get a PC up and running, a backup battery for a cellphone, a card reader, underwear, various cables and interconnects. All under $25, and I had them in 2 days without worrying about shipping costs.

As for the prime video offerings, I could live without it. It's largely redundant (and inferior) if you already have netflix, and at least on the PS3's interface, the prime offerings are frustratingly integrated with the for-pay content when you start browsing by genre or searches. I've watched a few items off it, but until Amazon really gets serious about its offerings, its streaming prime service is really kind of useless and forgettable.

Free 2-day shipping it a tremendous value if you order as much as we do off Amazon. We buy the most pedestrian items, just because we can, and the prices are competitive with most brick and mortar retailers.

Most of these items are not available on Amazon in Canada.

This is a bad joke from Amazon unless they intend to significantly improve their selection quickly.

Given how little you have to spend to get free shipping (which is - at least for me - stupid quick) this has no value whatsoever. Do people make tons of tiny Amazon orders?

Indeed, living in Montreal, I always get 2-day shipping (or less) anyway and I guess lot of canadians live in the same delivery radius as the missisauga-montreal distance (530km/330miles)... let's say 3/5 of canadians.

When they'll offer instant video... in about 8 years I'll sign up if it covers content I don't already have with netflix.

I live about an hour away from Amazon's Mississauga facility (about 20-30% of Canadians live about an hour away from that facility) and I often get deliveries the next business day, even if I choose the free Super Saver 4-6 business day shipping option.

Will Amazon now start using some other shipping method for non-Prime customers to slow down their deliveries and save themselves some money?

I live about an hour away from Amazon's Mississauga facility (about 20-30% of Canadians live about an hour away from that facility) and I often get deliveries the next business day, even if I choose the free Super Saver 4-6 business day shipping option.

Will Amazon now start using some other shipping method for non-Prime customers to slow down their deliveries and save themselves some money?

If you go the non-prime free route Amazon will sometimes not ship your order right away. I live less than an hour from one of their major distribution centers and I would say 90% of my orders come in the next business day (sometimes the same day if I order something in the wee hours of the morning) but every once in awhile one will be held one or two days even though it comes out of that same facility. It doesn't really bother me since I never have anything that is vital rolling in from Amazon. But the lesson is if you absolutely must have it right away then pay for the shipping to make sure it comes right away. You get what you pay for.

Not worth it for me. I live in Saskatchewan and I basically always get things within 3 days using Super Saver shipping since I am located almost dead center between the two shipping centers. If I order by Tuesday I will always get what I want by Friday. Unless they significantly step up their selection, there is no reason for me to get this. Most tech-related items I can get cheaper off NCIX, Newegg or the like and all other items I want usually surpass the $25 minimum.

I've been a long time Amazon prime customer and yes, it's worth it. Both for the 2-day shipping and the sub $25 orders (speaking from the point of view of an American). Both of these add up to make me more likely to buy stuff on Amazon instead of going to the store. Even a "quick" trip to a nearby store by car takes 30 minutes, a big box nearly an hour minimum when you factor in just the parking and walking into the store. At the end of the day that's the point to spending the $80 - I simply never go into real stores unless I absolutely have too.

Does this apply to items sold by "amazon" only, or does it include all the third party vendors that are listed for pretty much any search I do? With the exception of movies and books, Amazon itself doesn't actually sell that much in canada...

edit: actually I found the answer in the FAQ's...only amazon.ca items, no third party stuff. So that really limits the scope of what it can be used for. Time to look at my amazon history to see if it could possibly be a good idea for me...

Given how little you have to spend to get free shipping (which is - at least for me - stupid quick) this has no value whatsoever. Do people make tons of tiny Amazon orders?

Yes. Prime changes the way you buy stuff. You decide you want something, you click a few times and then it shows up in two days. No more waiting so you can make a bigger order, and you start thinking in terms of "I could go to the store and see what thingabobbles they have, or I could just look at all the thingabobbles in existence on Amazon, check reviews, and have it show up at my door on Tuesday, all in the time it would have taken me to get to the store". I pretty much buy everything except perishable food on Amazon now, and have for a few years.

You don't have to consider the price, and you don't have to consider where they will be shipping from and when you need it, barring natural disasters it's two days like clockwork. Now that they sell third party stuff fulfilled by Amazon (thus eligible for Prime), there's really not much you can't get there for cheaper than a store.

To all the Americans stating that this is worthwhile for them, keep in mind that the Amazon.ca selection is considerably more limited than the Amazon.com selection. The Canadian site has a great selected of books, CD's, movies and (some) electronics, but as soon as you leave that multimedia bubble, it's pretty spartan.

Many of those standard retail items (clothing, accessories, tools, etc.) are either not available, or priced MUCH higher than on the American site. I was recently looking at purchasing an Onkyo home theater system. It was priced at $250 on Amazon.com, and $450 on Amazon.ca. This is a regular occurrence, and is the reason so many Canadians are looking at this announcement with apathy.

Does this apply to items sold by "amazon" only, or does it include all the third party vendors that are listed for pretty much any search I do? With the exception of movies and books, Amazon itself doesn't actually sell that much in canada...

edit: actually I found the answer in the FAQ's...only amazon.ca items, no third party stuff. So that really limits the scope of what it can be used for. Time to look at my amazon history to see if it could possibly be a good idea for me...

I thought this Amazon Prime was probably not worth it, but with this, it becomes completely useless.

Oddly enough, the new facility in Vancouver is making my recent "free shipping" orders arrive slower. Items from the Mississausage depot would arrive in a day....now it takes a week from BC.

Heh, same here. But at least 95% of my orders still come from Mississauga, which means that even with Free Super Saver Shipping, I get half of my orders the very next day, and the other 45% in two days. That last 5% from Vancouver, yeah, that takes like a week.

The only things amazon.ca is good for are books, movies and CDs. Even then, often what I'm looking for is available on amazon.com but not in Canada. When it has what I want, it's great. But as other Canadians have pointed out, there is no reason at all for a Canadian to purchase Amazon Prime unless Amazon plans on expanding their offerings in Canada.

Given how little you have to spend to get free shipping (which is - at least for me - stupid quick) this has no value whatsoever. Do people make tons of tiny Amazon orders?

Yes. Prime changes the way you buy stuff. You decide you want something, you click a few times and then it shows up in two days. No more waiting so you can make a bigger order, and you start thinking in terms of "I could go to the store and see what thingabobbles they have, or I could just look at all the thingabobbles in existence on Amazon, check reviews, and have it show up at my door on Tuesday, all in the time it would have taken me to get to the store". I pretty much buy everything except perishable food on Amazon now, and have for a few years.

You don't have to consider the price, and you don't have to consider where they will be shipping from and when you need it, barring natural disasters it's two days like clockwork. Now that they sell third party stuff fulfilled by Amazon (thus eligible for Prime), there's really not much you can't get there for cheaper than a store.

QFT--having Prime changes the way you shop. Especially during the holiday seasons, it's completely worth it. For what it's worth, I didn't see the value proposition in it either until I was a member--I joined for the free monthly book rental on Kindle, thinking the free shipping was just a little perk. But once you have it, you start seeing all sorts of $8 and $12 things which you can just order and avoid a trip to the store. Movie you're interested in is on sale? Buy it! Kid's birthday coming up? Get him a $10 action figure! And so on.

I see Canadians noting that the Amazon.ca product selection isn't as good as America, I have no idea, I've never looked, but I can say as an American Prime subscriber I never use the streaming video and I am very satisfied with the value I get. The difference between 2 day shipping and the free shipping that takes 5+ days is for me what makes Amazon a viable alternative for pretty much everything I buy. In the past 2 weeks I've ordered a combination lock, a backpack, a pack of wooden hangers, a couple pairs of running shorts, a soup ladle and sauce pot, a video game controller, a pair of kitchen tongs, an iPhone case, and a package of rechargeable batteries. All at significant discounts to brick-and-mortar retail, all delivered to my door in 1-2 days.

Maybe it depends on where you live but "Free shipping" is always 3 days max where I live, so the "Pay 79$ for 2 days shipping" is not really interesting for me.

Without the Instant video option, this service has no value for me and for a majority of Canadians.

Well Amazon Prime's foray into Canada is very underwhelming. No Kindle lending, no video streaming, and no free shipping from Amazon Resellers. This last one is a real deal-breaker. Unlike the US store, a huge percentage of Amazon.ca's content is through resellers once you go outside the book and movie sections. Even their selection of games is largely served by resellers outside of the AAA blockbusters.

The selection is also a fraction of the US store in areas like electronics, hardware, housewares, fitness...pretty much every category. On top of this, these areas are also generally fulfilled by resellers, so no free shipping.

Not worth $79 as it stands. They either need to increase their offerings, or lower the price to reflect the fact that this service will work for books and movies.

Given how little you have to spend to get free shipping (which is - at least for me - stupid quick) this has no value whatsoever. Do people make tons of tiny Amazon orders?

Yes. Prime changes the way you buy stuff. You decide you want something, you click a few times and then it shows up in two days. No more waiting so you can make a bigger order, and you start thinking in terms of "I could go to the store and see what thingabobbles they have, or I could just look at all the thingabobbles in existence on Amazon, check reviews, and have it show up at my door on Tuesday, all in the time it would have taken me to get to the store". I pretty much buy everything except perishable food on Amazon now, and have for a few years.

You don't have to consider the price, and you don't have to consider where they will be shipping from and when you need it, barring natural disasters it's two days like clockwork. Now that they sell third party stuff fulfilled by Amazon (thus eligible for Prime), there's really not much you can't get there for cheaper than a store.

QFT--having Prime changes the way you shop. Especially during the holiday seasons, it's completely worth it. For what it's worth, I didn't see the value proposition in it either until I was a member--I joined for the free monthly book rental on Kindle, thinking the free shipping was just a little perk. But once you have it, you start seeing all sorts of $8 and $12 things which you can just order and avoid a trip to the store. Movie you're interested in is on sale? Buy it! Kid's birthday coming up? Get him a $10 action figure! And so on.

Like many Canadians have pointed out before, that 10$ action figure is probably not available in Canada or is priced 20$... So Prime is not really a good option for Canadians.

As was said, they need to fix the selection before they fix the shipping. I'm not sure if it is Amazon's end that has the problem or if Canada is limiting what they can do because brick and mortar stores are screaming at them.

Want to buy a decent TV?

We are not able to ship this item to your default shipping address.

AV Receiver?

We are not able to ship this item to your default shipping address.

Some Lego?

We are not able to ship this item to your default shipping address.

If I search for these products on amazon.ca I get almost no selection (well that 22" TV that says no OS sounds worth buying...)

It's about a 2hr drive from where I am to Grand Forks so I don't really think it is a distance thing.